Ducks - C&C

mikeWest

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Apr 11, 2012
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Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
1. $IMG_1030.jpg
2. $IMG_1031.jpg
3. $IMG_1052.jpg
4. $IMG_1060.jpg

This is my first time posting in a gallery, so forgive me if I do it wrong. I'm not really into ducks, I just thought they were pretty cool subjects to experiment with photography and think about light, composition etc... (I'm a real beginner). In terms of processing: I did very little except cropping.

Thoughts:
#1: duck's head is too dark relative to the body.
#2 Too much light.
#3 Can't really see the duck's face too well and there's too much light coming from the bottom right of the image (it was the sun).
#4 Is a bit too blury overall but I like the motion blur on the tail that suggests motion. In all of these I really like how the water turned out silky smooth (I'm assuming due to prolonged shutter).

I think my overall favorite is #3. What would you have done differently with these pictures in terms of composition, lighting, and/or post processing.
 
#3 is the best of the lot! I would have opened up the exposure a little bit and got some more light on the left side. It's a tough call as you risk blowing out a large area of butt-feathers, but I think the face is the most important. #s 1 & 2 have the subject rather too small in the frame IMO; if you can't get closer (longer lens, or move in more) probably not worth worrying about. #4 is nice, but it would be even better if you could have him facing you. Photographing animals is all about patience. Keep shooting!
 
Thanks for the feedback! In defense of #1/2 being too small in the frame, I wanted to capture the water, the ripples from the duck and the smoothness. I suppose I could also crop the pictures down to include less water but at some point I'm going to be getting really low-res images.

One great difficulty I have is that after a shoot I have 100s of pictures and to decide which ones to keep is too hard. Especially with many similar ones.
 
I wouldn't have posted pics 1 & 2. The duck in each picture is just too small to hold ones interest. Also the crop in pic #2 doesn't really add much of anything. Now picture #3 is so much better. Nice composition, interesting pose, the best of the set for sure. Pic #4 while composed and exposed correctly, I'm not sold on the tail motion as it detracts, not adds to the overall composition.
 

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